A new deal for decommissioning: radical ambition

From our research with experts in the energy sector and its supply chain, we’ve identified three ambitions for onshore decommissioning that are central to the transformation of the economics, safety and environmental standards of the UK’s activities.

‘Productionisation’ calls for a rethink of the conventional and dominant project-by-project approach. Batching work would reduce the costs of mobilisation and demobilisation. There is also the potential to secure the benefits of stacking and sequencing work to achieve smooth workflows and improve capacity usage of infrastructure and labour.

The creation of a ‘decom campus’ would seek to use co-location as a means to drive efficiency improvements. It would bring together the full range of specialists involved in onshore decommissioning and repurposing, from inspection and dismantling to hazardous material management and recycling. This approach would also allow maximum value to be extracted while minimising wasted costs through transport and other logistical inefficiencies.

Commitment is essential for providing the stability, predictability and certainty required for investment. The benefits of batch and scale require this. Any new solutions that will help the UK achieve its decommissioning objectives will require this investment – of money, time and faith.

All of these ‘moonshots’ are complementary and, indeed, highly interdependent.

Investment by facilities providers and/or the government to create the necessary infrastructure is highly likely to depend on a long-term commitment by the customers of those facilities. However, it may not be possible to secure this until the customers are clear that it will be possible to achieve the benefits required to justify this commitment.

Such a ‘chicken and egg’ situation - allied with the scale of challenge - will require a greater degree of transparency, cooperation and risk than may be traditionally comfortable for many players in this market. This means that stakeholders in the decommissioning process will need to take a different approach to co-creating solutions that the whole sector can benefit from.

You can read more about what this might mean in practice in our white paper HERE.